It’s never too early to start looking towards Draft Day 2011, is it?
Let’s kick off our offseason rankings taking a look at my Top 15 catchers for 2011.
Keep in mind that these will be updated throughout the offseason, depending on player movement and finalizing my projections:
- Joe Mauer – Minnesota Twins
- Victor Martinez – Boston Red Sox
- Brian McCann – Atlanta Braves
- Carlos Santana – Cleveland Indians
- Buster Posey – San Francisco Giants
- Miguel Montero – Arizona Diamondbacks
- Kurt Suzuki – Oakland Athletics
- Geovany Soto – Chicago Cubs
- Matt Wieters – Baltimore Orioles
- Mike Napoli – Los Angeles Angels
- Jorge Posada – New York Yankees
- Miguel Olivo – Colorado Rockies
- Yadier Molina – St. Louis Cardinals
- J.P. Arencibia – Toronto Blue Jays
- John Buck – Toronto Blue Jays
Thoughts:
- After the Top 11 catchers, you can almost start picking names out of a hat to fill out the rankings. At this point, I’m going with these names, but they will likely move around as things progress during the offseason.
- John Buck is at the bottom of this list, but he really scares me for 2011. I can’t see his average continuing (he hit .281 thanks to a .335 BABIP). Where he lands in free agency will ultimately determine his value. He can hit for power, however, which gives him an edge over players like John Jaso.
- J.P. Arencibia debuted with a bang, then fell off and ultimately didn’t get much playing time down the stretch. Still, with a Blue Jays team that has other holes to fill, it makes sense for them to turn the keys to Arencibia. After hitting .301 with 32 HR and 85 RBI at Triple-A, they certainly have no reason not to.
- Kurt Suzuki was disappointing in 2010, hitting .242 with 13 HR and 71 RBI. That certainly wasn’t the breakout anyone had been expecting, was it? He also suffered from a .245 BABIP, however, and with more support in the middle of the lineup, the production in general should increase. At 27 years old, he certainly has the potential to put together a significantly better season. We’ll be getting into more detail on him in the near future.
- Another catcher who disappointed was Matt Wieters; the next big catcher hit just .249 with 11 HR and 55 RBI on the year. This just goes to show you that there is no such thing as a sure thing, though I certainly have hope that he will be able to put things together and be a usable option in all formats. He showed enough power in the minor leagues (27 HR in ‘08 between Single and Double-A), to think that he could take a step forward from his 8.0% HR/FB in ‘10.
- This year’s two hot catchers, Carlos Santana and Buster Posey, are not quite in the same boat as Wieters was in ‘10, because they both showed that they could excel at the Major League level. They are both among the best options at the position and should reward owners in all formats.
What are your thoughts on these rankings? Who’s too high? Who’s too low?
Make sure to check out our 2011 projections:
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